Names and faces

Veteran TV newsman Tom Brokaw has been diagnosed with cancer, NBCNews said Tuesday. The Mayo Clinic discovered last summer that Brokaw has multiple myeloma, a cancer affecting blood cells in the bone marrow, NBC News said. His doctors are optimistic about his treatment and encouraged by his progress, the network division said. In a statement released by NBC, Brokaw said he remains, in his words, “the luckiest guy I know.” “With the exceptional support of my family, medical team and friends, I am very optimistic about the future and look forward to continuing my life, my work and adventures still to come,” he said. The former national anchorman, now an NBC News special correspondent, has continued to work on projects and is contributing to NBC Sports coverage of the Winter Olympics, NBC said. Brokaw, who turned 74 on Feb. 6, said he is grateful for the interest in his health but wants to keep it a private matter.He began his career with NBC News in its Los Angeles bureau in 1966, later serving as its White House correspondent during the Watergate scandal before becoming news anchor of NBC Nightly News in 1983.

When Danish director Thomas Vinterberg wrote the script for TheHunt - one of this year’s Oscar contenders for Best Foreign Language Film - he pictured a young Robert De Niro as the lonely teacher whose life crumbles because of an innocent lie. But when fellow Dane Mads Mikkelsen, known for his roles as the icy villain in the James Bond movie Casino Royale and the brilliantly evil Hannibal Lecter on TV’s Hannibal, signed on, his vision changed. “It was really awesome when I got Mads,” he said. “But, I had to rewrite the script.” Vinterberg says his original idea was that the lead character, Lucas, would be a young, tough blacksmith. However, he toned it down and turned him into a humble, quiet kindergarten teacher, popular with the children. The small-town teacher becomes the victim of a modern witch hunt over a 5-year-old’s false accusation of pedophilia. “I changed it because I thought it would be a much more interesting combination,” he said. Vinterberg won’t speculate about the chances of his film winning the Academy Award, which would be Denmark’s fourth foreign-language Oscar.